Metaphysics and Epistemology in Classical Greek Thought

Foundations of Greek Intellectual Thought

The Greek intellectual scheme initially focused on three primary areas of study:

1. Physics: Studied nature, focusing on existence, changing beings, their contingency, and necessity.
2. Epistemology/Metaphysics: Sought knowledge and truth, defining and discerning the essence and the appearance of beings.
3. Ethics/Politics: Moral and political philosophy.

Core Metaphysical Assumptions

1. Beings are composed of a constant essence, which defines their existence despite accidental qualities.
2. Classes of Knowledge:
   • Rational: Concepts / Essences.
   • Sensible: Appearances / Senses.
3. The universe is governed by an absolute principle or arché.
4. Nature (Physis): Nature encompasses all beings in the universe and their essence. Nature is a cosmos; everything has its place and essence, yet it is dynamic, involving changing beings and movement.

The Sophists: Key Ideas and Focus

• Skepticism (though not total).
• Relativism: Knowledge and truth are relative to the situation.
• Importance of language and rhetoric (the art of persuasion).
• Their interests centered on man, politics, and morality.
• Conventionalism: Standards and laws emerge from agreements between men.

Socrates: Method and Moral Intellectualism

Socrates focused more on human beings than on society. He believed the first step to learning is recognizing one's own ignorance.

The Socratic Method (Two Phases)

1. Irony: Socrates asks questions to challenge the interlocutor's convictions, leading the person to discover that they do not truly know what they thought they knew.
2. Maieutics (Midwifery): Once ignorance is discovered, Socrates asks further questions to help the individual discover true knowledge (saber).

Philosophical Attitude

• Anti-Relativism: Aimed to rehabilitate and construct conceptual meanings valid for all moral theories.
• Moral Intellectualism: A fundamental value is the use of reason by man.
• Virtue = Knowledge (Virtud = Saber).

Aristotle's Theory of Knowledge (Epistemology)

Aristotle claimed that knowledge is explained entirely through the sensible world. Knowledge is a process of abstraction, where sensory contact is the first step toward understanding reality.

Degrees of Knowledge

Sensation puts us in contact with sensible objects. This constant flow of sensation is organized by memory. Our knowledge process involves:

1. Sensation
2. Imagination
3. Memory
4. Understanding

Understanding acts upon sensory impressions to grasp the essence of things through memory and imagination.

Types of Senses and Intellect

Aristotle identified two types of senses:

• External Senses: Sight, hearing, etc.
• Internal Senses: Common sense, imagination, and memory.

Understanding (Intellect) is divided into two forms:

• Passive Understanding: Potential, related to the sensitive world.
• Active Understanding: In action, performing abstraction. This understanding is considered immortal and eternal.

Aristotelian Anthropology: The Soul and Body

The soul is the living principle that animates the body. It dies when the body dies. The soul relates to the body as function relates to the organ; it does not subsist in itself but acquires meaning through this substantial union.

Every living being is a single substance. Soul and body are one, related to one another as:

• Matter and Form (Hylemorphic Doctrine)
• Potentiality and Act (Movement/Change)

The Three Types of Soul

1. Vegetative
2. Sensitive
3. Rational